1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multilayer ceramic capacitor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there is a need for a large-capacity and small-size multilayer ceramic capacitor. Such a multilayer ceramic capacitor, for example, has ceramic layers defining inner layers (dielectric ceramic layers) and internal electrodes stacked alternately with topmost and bottommost surfaces provided with ceramic layers defining outer layers to have a ceramic body having a rectangular parallelepiped shape which is in turn provided at its opposite end surfaces with external electrodes. The ceramic body has opposite side surfaces provided with a side margin portion to prevent connection to the external electrodes.
Such a multilayer ceramic capacitor as described above is produced in a method described in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 61-248413. Specifically, the multilayer ceramic capacitor is produced as follows: a plurality of ceramic green sheets each having a surface with a conductive film that will serve as an internal electrode are stacked on one another to form a mother multilayer body, which is in turn cut such that it has a side surface free of an external electrode with the conductive film exposed. Then a ceramic slurry that will serve as a side margin portion is applied on the cut multilayer body at the opposite side surfaces to provide a less varying, uniform side margin portion.
The method for producing a multilayer ceramic capacitor as described in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 61-248413, however, provides a side margin portion formed of a ceramic slurry that is including the same dielectric ceramic material as a ceramic slurry that is used to form the ceramic layers defining the inner layers. When a multilayer ceramic capacitor is produced using this method with a baking step performed under a condition applied to form the ceramic layers defining the inner layers, it will have a side margin portion having more pores formed therein, and the pores in the side margin portion allow moisture to be introduced into the multilayer ceramic capacitor, which impairs the reliability of the multilayer ceramic capacitor.